The Skygrabber Mountains

THE NEXT DAY:

The group have begun to ride once more, but this time, they have the covering up to deal with the snow that's still falling, albeit a lot less than the day before.

The snow is a big concern for them as well because if that wind picks up, the gently falling snow is going to become another blizzard.

The group are also wary of another blizzard suddenly swooping in, and so, they're keeping a keen eye out for any shelter that they can duck into, if need be.

On the cart, most of the group are silent as they're focused on keeping themselves warm, but Virra finds the silence annoying, she then decides to put an end to it by asking Clarva a question.

"Hey Clarva, how do we know when we've found the giants?"

"We'll see two big fucking doors." Clarva bluntly replies.

The group have a round of laughter at Clarva's bluntness, but once they calm down, Virra asks, "Seriously though, how will we know?"

"Oh, I wasn't kidding. When we get up to the summit, we'll see two huge doors at the end of the path. The giant's stronghold goes deep into the mountain also, so we need to keep our wits about us when we get inside."

"Speaking of: How giant are these giants?" John asks.

Clarva thinks for a moment. "Well, from what I remember, they were much taller than I am now. You're probably looking at five or so feet taller than me, and that's the smallest one."

"Giants are known to grow up to forty feet tall, but there are legends that say some can grow up to nearly seventy feet." Lani adds.

"You don't have to worry about seventy foot behemoths. The leader of the tribe is usually the tallest, and if it's the same bitch in charge, then she's about five John's tall -but that's just an estimate." Clarva says, making everyone collectively shit their pants.

"Thirty fucking feet tall? Fucking shit-balls." Are the only words that John can muster upon hearing Clarva's estimate.

The suddenness of the "shit-balls" causes the group to burst into laughter, a welcome distraction to take their minds off the wind still chilling their bones.

A little bit later on, Clarva notices that Terra is looking a little worse for wear. "Hey, snowball. You alright?"

"Y-y-yeah. It's just this damned cold. A damned snow elf who can't handle the cold, who would've thought?"

"The term 'snow' comes from the complexion, not affiliation the weather." Lani comments.

"I know that, Lani. I'd normally be a lot more grateful for the lesson, but my gratitude is as frozen as my arse right now."

"Duly noted." Lani comments before bringing her head back into John's cloak to keep herself warm.

As Terra begins bundling herself up even more, she is shocked to feel a large hand on her back. She then looks at Clarva with a confused expression. "W-W-What are you doing?"

"Well, I figured my hand would help heat you up a little. It's about the size of your back, so it should start working soon." Clarva responds.

Terra wants to respond, but is soon stopped by the feeling of the fantastic heat from Clarva's hand beginning to warm her back.

"Wow... that is.... heavenly." Terra almost coos, revelling in the warmth that is melting the almost literal ice that coats her body.

"Figured it'd help." Clarva says as she feels Terra relaxing against her palm.

Next to John, Amilia is looking over at Terra and Clarva's interaction, and she begins to feel pangs of jealousy within herself, almost like knives plunging into her chest.

This type of jealousy is new for Amilia. She's felt jealous before, but not to this extent. Amilia tries her best to push the feeling away, but it doesn't work like it usually does, which annoys her even more.

The combination of the cold mixed with the jealousness causes Amilia to shiver even more, and John notices it. He can't see what her eyes are focused on, but just assumes that she's really feeling the cold even through her fur and cloak.

John then decides to help Amilia out, so he puts his arm over her. This shocks the cat as she quickly asks, "What are you doing?!"

John moves his arm away. "You looked frozen as all hell. I can barely see a black hair on you with all that frost. So, I figured you could use some body heat. If you're cool with it? Pun not intended, but proud of it."

Amilia immediately feels the urge to punch John for that last part, but manages to restrain herself just enough. She then thinks about his offer, after all, why shouldn't she be warmed up by someone else as well?

A brief couple of seconds pass before Amilia decides to go for it, and without vocally responding, she hugs John, which surprises him.

"I guess that means it's all... chill?" John asks, just managing to hold in a laugh about his horrible dad pun.

"Make another cold pun, and I'm cutting you open and warming myself up in your body."

"Not a fan of puns. Got it." John responds as the two go back to silently shivering, but the warmth from the two bodies is helping them greatly.

There's a few moments of silence between the two before John hears Amilia mutter. "Thanks."

John doesn't respond, instead, he gently pulls her in a little closer, giving her a slightly deeper side hug.

On the other side of John's cloak, Lani is curled up in the inside pocket, basking in the heat coming from John's chest. She wishes she could use her magic to try and heat the group up, but pyromancy isn't a type of magic that's primarily taught at the academy.

Meanwhile, in the front of the cart, Virra and Kyuala have the difficult job of driving and navigating through the snow covered path, but they're making do as best they can.

Virra notices that Kyuala has a crinkle above her nose, signalling that she's deep in thought.

Virra doesn't want to pry in case it's a private matter, but the boredom is getting to her. "What you thinking about?"

Kyuala snaps out of her thoughts. "Huh?"

"I could see the gears grinding away in that thinking box of yours. So, what were you thinking about?"

Kyuala is a little annoyed that Virra had noticed her thinking face, but then again, Kyuala hadn't exactly made it difficult for her.

After wondering how to phrase it for a few seconds, Kyuala starts laying it out. "These giants we're coming up against. I'm worried about us heading right their territory with no help whatsoever, and escaping is damn near impossible if another blizzard comes around."

"Well, that's definitely a reason to be worried." Virra comments.

"Even in Reduna'z, we had the advantage of being in a familiar area. Even though the gates didn't last long, I still felt confident we could win. This time? I don't know."

"Well... if I wasn't scared shitless before, I sure am now."

Kyuala can't help but laugh at Virra's swearing which helps break the tension and distracts them from the cold for a brief couple of seconds before a small gust of wind brings them back to their cold reality.

---

A FEW HOURS LATER:

The journey has been quiet thus far with nothing but the whistling wind all around them. The further they travel up, the colder the wind gets, and the more the group have to huddle up with one another.

Now, Kyuala is still worried about the prospect of having to go up against the giants, and she wants to be as prepared as possible for the impending meeting.

"Clarva, do you know of the giants capabilities?" Kyuala asks.

"Not much unfortunately. I've mostly been basing their abilities from what little I remember and from my own abilities as well. What I can tell you is that we have speed on our side. No matter what we can do, speed is our key to kicking their asses."

"Do you believe we can kill them?" Kyuala follows up.

"Oh fuck yeah. Everything that bleeds can be killed, and the giants can, and will, fucking bleed."

Clarva's words actually inspire Kyuala a little bit. She may still have her doubts about the half-giant, but she can't help but admit that Clarva knows how to give confidence. However, there's still that little voice in the back of Kyuala's head that's telling her not to trust Clarva.

Speaking of Clarva, the half-giant is holding her pendant, thinking about her old friend once again. Clarva had only met one other person who hated giants as much as her, and she can't help but feel a little guilty that she isn't her beside Clarva as they had promised each other all those years ago.

During her dive into old memories, Clarva hears Terra ask, "Who are you thinking about?"

"What?" Clarva quickly responds.

"The way you were holding that pendant, it seemed like you were thinking about someone. I apologize if I presumed incorrectly."

Clarva takes a second, wondering if she wants to tell Terra about her friend, but she eventually relents because even though they're comrades for now, Clarva wouldn't say she trusts them that much.

"Just thinking about my father. He'd probably tell me to drop the whole thing and go live a normal life - whatever normal means." Clarva answers, and while that might not have been what Clarva was thinking about at the moment, it technically wasn't a lie.

"He sounds like a kind man." Terra says.

Clarva then responds, "He was. He just liked to help people, never wanting nothing from anyone. Shame I didn't get that from him."

Terra chuckles. "There's quite a lack of that these days. However, I believe that these people, my friends... we're all people who just like to help. I also believe that you... are just like us... just like you're father."

Clarva looks at Terra with an unconvinced look. "And just how in the hells do you know that?"

"I like to think of myself as a decent judge of character." Terra replies with a kind smile.

Clarva is still unconvinced. "You know I'm just doing this to get **** and get paid for it, right? And cause there was literally no one else."

"While I can't argue about you being in it for your **** and because there was no one else, if you were truly in it for the money - you would have taken it up front."

"There's still time for me to take my coin, y'know?" Clarva jokes.

"There is, but I don't think you will." Terra confidently says, making Clarva chuckle as she knows that the elf is right.

The chuckling between the two lasts for only a few moments before they hear Virra's voice coming from the front of the cart. "Hey, Clarva! We're coming up to the bridge!"

Upon hearing this, Clarva turns around and starts looking ahead of the cart, seeing the bridge in question.

The bridge is massively wide and luckily it's a short ride, so the group aren't so worried about potentially falling off, but there's two major concerns for the group.

The first concern is the lack of coverage on the aforementioned bridge is worrying.

Now, while they haven't really been covered during most of the journey, the weather plus the incline has almost guaranteed safety from anyone with bad intentions.

However, the bigger concern is the corrie on the other side of the bridge.

At the end of the bridge is two high, rocky edges that anyone could easily hide on, and be greatly covered, especially bandits. Travelling through the corrie doesn't exactly appeal to the group, but as the only way up to the giants' stronghold, they don't have a choice.

"Virra, stop the cart." Kyuala says, and Virra does as she asks.

The group all head to the front of the cart, seeing what lies ahead of them.

"Well, if that ain't bandit central, I dunno what is." Amilia comments.

Lani then asks, "Surely there isn't anyone up here, right?"

"We can't say for certain, but we can't rule it out either." Clarva then turns to Kyuala. "Orc, you're the planner of the group, you got anything up your sleeve?"

Kyuala is quiet for a few moments, obviously thinking of a plan, but eventually, she breaks the silence. "We use your shields to cover us. There doesn't seem to be any cover for a good bit, so we'll have to move quick. They might try to block us in with boulders, so if that happens, our best option might be magic to retaliate, but we have to be careful about causing an avalanche."

"There's a decently flat part on the left side. I can fling Virra and one of you up there to protect her, so she can use that fancy archery of hers." Clarva suggests.

Kyuala nods her head. "That could work."

"I'll go with her." Amilia says before adding, "Keep the magic folk down here to use a shield on the cart, so they don't try to wreck it."

"Plus, if they try to attack on the ground, Kyuala and Clarva can deal with them." Terra adds.

"That all depends on if there're any bandits over there." Lani then says, seemingly wrapping up the conversation as everyone goes silent at the possibility.

"Well, no matter if there are any bandits or not, we won't find out just sitting here. So, let's get going." Kyuala says, wanting to just get this place in their rear view.

Virra then starts the cart up once again, and the group begin to cross the bridge.

The eyes of the group quickly begin to examine the upcoming rocky edges, silently praying that no one is hiding amongst the rock.

The cart eventually passes the halfway point of the bridge, and nerves are shooting through the roof. Even if the group were in the warmest of weather at the moment, they'd definitely still be shaking.

"Anybody really need to pee right now? Or is it just me?" Virra somewhat jokes, but it's more on the side of truth.

"Pretty sure if we peed out in the open, it'd turn to ice before it hit the ground." Kyuala responds.

"We could throw it at any bandits?" John quips.

Clarva then adds, "**** by piss-cicle. Pretty sure they'd get laughed out of the afterlife for that."

Terra decides to contribute to the joke. "I'd be pretty pissed if that happened to me."

Terra receives a couple of joking boo's from the group, and the nerves drop a little, but not entirely and certainly not for long.

The last few feet of the bridge come up, and as the group slightly rock because of the shift between bridge and the path that continues on from it.

The nerves spike once again and the eyes dart around faster than flies avoiding getting swatted as the rocky ledges are now above them, and because they can't see past them, they're completely ****.

The cart keeps moving forward, and Virra does her best to not wreck the wheels with all the rocks that have fallen from the sides. Unfortunately for the group, that carefulness results in the cart moving at a slower place.

"Can we speed up? If we go any slower, we'd be goin' fucking backwards." Amilia asks, obviously annoyed at the sluggish pace.

"Amilia, keep it down." Kyuala quietly says. "Listen, we have to be on the lookout for any traps that might be around. Plus, these damn rocks could break the wheels if we went fast, so then we'd be royally fucked."

"If we go any slower, we're gonna get fucked by frostbite!" Amilia spits back.

"Can you two please stop talking about getting fucked?! I am trying to focus on the road here." Virra scolds before she turns her attention back to the road.

Meanwhile, at the back of the cart, Terra asks, "You see anything?"

"Nothing yet. It's eerie." John replies.

"To be fair, they wouldn't be very good if you could see them." Clarva adds.

John gives a single side nod. "True."

John then looks down into his coat, peeking into his interior pocket to see Lani still curled up. "You doing okay?"

"I'm better than I was earlier. I'm sorry I can't do more."

John immediately dismisses that. "Hey, you've got nothing to be sorry for. I'd rather you be alive and resting than becoming an ice cube just to be an extra pair of eyes."

Lani smiles up at him. "Thank you."

John then smiles back. "Alright. Rest up." John then closes the jacket and goes back to keeping an eye out.

A few painstakingly long minutes later, the cart reaches the halfway point of what Kyuala has internally named the "Funnel of ****."

The group start to wonder if there really is any bandits around, but none of them wish to say anything out loud and jinx the whole thing.

Unfortunately for all of them, Amilia doesn't have the same thought process. "So, guess we did all that planning shit for nothing, huh?"

"Amilia!" Kyuala starts to scold, but her voice is interrupted by a boulder crashing down a good few feet ahead of them.

The group immediately hear shouting come from above them, and a couple arrows strike the ground ahead of them.

Clarva turns around as quickly as she can before saying, "Shøla!"

Just then, Clarva's shields appear, and she puts them over Kyuala and Virra as they make their way into the back of the cart. Meanwhile, the magic users in the back quickly put up a combined ward around the entire cart.

"How many are there?" Clarva asks.

Kyuala then replies, "I saw four at the front, but there's definitely more voices. How many are at the back?"

John pokes his head out just a little, and manages to spot a few more. "At least four more back here, but I still think there's more that I can't get a visual on."

"Alright folks, lets get ready. They've got bows and potentially other weapons, so we need to be quick and vigilant. Virra, Amilia, are you two ready to head up?"

"Ready." Virra and Amilia response in unison to Kyuala.

"Alright. Clarva, you know what to do."

"On it." Clarva says before heading to the end of the cart.

Meanwhile, on the left ridge, two of the bandits have their bows drawn, ready to fire an arrow at a moments notice.

"Bastards put up a ward. What in the hells are we gonna do now?" The first bandit asks.

"They'll have to drop it eventually, and once they do, we move in and take their stuff after we kill them." The second bandit replies.

The first bandit then sees the cart shifting. "Movement! They're getting ready to do something!"

Just then, the two bandits see a humongous woman leap out of the back of the cart and come thudding down onto the stone below.

"Fire!" The two bandits hear their leader call, and so they let their arrows loose.

Clarva brings her shields up, and all the arrows bounce off them like they were paper planes thrown at a wall.

"Move around! She can't block all angles!" The bandit leader calls out.

The bandits do as ordered and start moving around, trying to find an opening to fire an arrow into. They continue firing arrows as quickly as they can, but Clarva's shields are just too wide and large to get a solid shot past.

Clarva then surprises the bandits by planting both of her shields in front of her, but they can't get fire an arrow at her regardless due to a newly created ward that surrounds her.

Amilia and Virra then leap out from the back of the cart and rush toward Clarva. The duo then each leap onto a shield.

"Enjoy your flight you two!" Clarva says to the two before she thrusts her shields forward.

Amilia and Virra are launched up towards the ridge, stunning the bandits as they watch the two women fly towards them.

During her flight, Virra's magic travels up her arm as she nocks an arrow before firing it.

The arrow flies through the air for a brief moment before piercing through the chest of one of the bandits before the arrow is called back as Virra lands.

As Amilia lands, she quickly pulls out one of her daggers and throws it, plunging into the throat of the bandit next to the one Virra dispatched.

Amilia then rushes forward, ripping her dagger from the throat of the bandit before focusing on her next target.

The remaining bandits on the left ridge all focus their attention onto Amilia and Virra. One of the bandits attempts to get a shot on Amilia, but Virra deals with him as her arrow finds its way into his eye.

Three more bandits remain, but Amilia decides to cut that number down as her daggers make blood fountains out of the necks of two more bandits, leaving just one poor sod remaining.

That one poor sod doesn't last for long as while he is shitting himself, Virra finds the bull's-eye that is the heart of the bandit. The man then drops dead just as Amilia is about to get to him.

"Hey! He was mine!" Amilia shouts back to Virra.

"Don't play with your food then, kitty cat!" Virra fires back.

Amilia's expression forms into one of annoyance. "I'm gonna cut one of your ears off while you sleep!"

Just before Virra can retort, a few arrows come towards them, forcing them to take cover.

On the other ridge, the remaining six bandits are now focusing on Virra and Amilia after witnessing how they dispatched of their allies.

Back in the cart, Terra has an opportunity to assist her sister and friend, so she creates a stone spike and launches it into one of the bandits.

Terra can't see exactly what happened after the bandit was hit, but the group heard a wet squelch just two seconds later, so they assume he's somewhat dealt with.

Using the distraction to her advantage, Virra pops out of cover and lets an arrow loose, The arrow hits the leg of a bandit, causing him to fall down towards Clarva, but the crunching bones signal to Clarva that the bandit's neck, spine, and quite a lot of other bones are broken.

Amilia, already annoyed by Virra's jokes and being shot at, decides to take measures into her own hands. She then starts running toward Virra, but Clarva is the focus of her attention.

"Hey giganto! Catch me!"

"What?!" Clarva replies, confused as to what Amilia means, but she doesn't have much time to question it as she sees Amilia leap off of the ledge towards her.

Clarva makes one of her shields fade away and catches Amilia with her single free hand. "You're a fucking maniac, y'know that?"

"Thank you. I appreciate the compliment. Now, are you gonna throw me up on the other ledge or are you gonna kiss me? Cause I'm cool with both, but I'd prefer the second."

Clarva can't help but laugh at Amilia's brash nature before turns around and throwing the cat up onto the right ridge.

Amilia is immediately **** to take cover as arrows start pelting the rock she is beside.

"I should've just got back in the fucking cart." Amilia thinks to herself as she waits for any sort of opening.

Terra decides to be that opening as she creates a couple more stone spikes and fires them in quick succession, destroying a few of the rocks the bandits were using for cover.

Virra then starts to let some arrows fly as Amilia starts rushing up, and the combined attack from the trio is too overwhelming for the bandits. A couple of Virra's arrows take out two bandits within seconds of each other just as Amilia leaps onto a third, driving her daggers into his chest.

The last remaining bandit is frozen in fear.

She just sat and watched as her brothers-in-arms died one by one, and there wasn't a thing she could do about it. As she comes to the realization that she's already dead, the bandit decides that she's going to go out fighting.

The bandit's hand comes up, arrow in her grip as she goes to nock what is probably her final arrow. She takes aim at the cat-woman ahead of her, and hopes that she can take at least one of their killers down.

The arrow meets the bowstring, and the bandit begins pulling the string back as she takes a breath, preparing for her final shot.

Just as the string is pulled back enough, the bandit goes to release her final shot, but it's all ruined as one of Virra's arrows pierces her left hand.

The bandit looks at the arrow embedded in her hand, shocked and confused. Amongst the quickly dripping blood, the bandit sees a slight blue sparkle on the shaft of the arrow, the same blue sparkle that signifies Virra's spell, calling back the arrow to the elf's hand.

The bandit then looks up, seeing **** itself covered in black fur with an aura of murderous intent surrounding the cat.

Before the bandit can say or do anything more, Amilia's daggers slice through the bandit's chest, and the bandit's world goes dark as she falls to the ground, joining her comrades.

"Alright! We're clear!" Amilia calls out to the others.

A few minutes later, after Kyuala and Clarva have moved the boulder, Amilia is back on the ground after jumping down into the half-giant's arms once again.

"Remind me to never mess with the cat." Clarva says as they all get back on the cart.

The group all have a laugh, but it's Terra who says, "Don't let her crass humour fool you, Amilia is incredibly impressive when it comes to battle. I'm always impressed at what she can do."

Amilia's heart flutters after hearing Terra's praise. She turns her head away, looking out the back of the cart as she feels her cheeks begin to flush. She's just grateful that she has fur, so they can't see her cheeks blush.

"Alright everyone! Let's get going!" Virra calls out as the cart begins moving forward.

---

A FEW MORE HOURS LATER:

The group have finally found their way up the treacherous path and are now in front of two dark stone doors, both of them being size of a house.

"So, I'm guessing that's the giant's stronghold?" John asks.

"How did you guess?" Clarva jokingly replies.

Virra then asks, "What do we do? Knock on the door?"

"Pretty much." Clarva response as she heads to the end of the cart.

"What's the gameplan? Do we act as respectful as possible? Because I don't exactly wish to be surrounded by an army of pissed off giants."

The group all begin thinking of an answer to Kyuala's question, but once again, Clarva is the one speak up.

"Don't try bullshitting them, giants can smell it from a mile away. Hells, they probably know we're here already. Just tell them what you're here for, no lies."

Clarva then hops out of the cart. "So, are y'all ready?"

The group all look amongst one another, uncertainty prevalent in every one of their eyes. Unfortunately for them, they don't have much of a choice either way, so they begin disembarking the cart before heading up to the door.

As the seven head up to the door, they look amongst once again, wondering who will be the one to knock on the door.

Loud clanging can be heard coming from the inside which scares the group. The only who isn't bothered is Clarva who knows exactly what that sound is. "Don't worry. That's just the door unlocking."

"Saying that doesn't make us worry any less!" Virra comments with a frightened tone.

The clanging continues on for another minute before the final one rings out.

"Here we go." Clarva mutters, worrying the group even more than they already are, but their attentions are quickly grabbed as they hear the stone doors scraping against the floor, signalling their opening.